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12 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Innocence can be seen as: |
- children's natural universal state
- dependant on historical and cultural context - associated with purity and virtue (sexual purity in particular - central to how children and childhood is understood - children not yet come into contact with sexuality, the market, money, politics - requiring adult protection [belief in childhood innocence suggests a belief in innocence as innate in children] |
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Wordsworth (Romantic poet) |
- children are instinctual, closer to nature, imaginative and living in the moment - this world is lost to adults but can be rediscovered by protecting children's innocence |
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Warner identified ways that adults see children: |
- naturally innocent - blank slates - agents of redemption - basis of adult identity - separate state - should be protected from the consumer market |
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Kaspar Hauser (kept isolated in a darkened room) |
- blank slate (tabula rasa - Locke) - embodied innocence - links to Victor - the wild boy of Aveyron |
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Sheltered innocence: |
- childhood as a protected state - children have gone from economically useful to emotionally priceless - parents have become overprotective and risk anxious - ie. not letting children out on their own, limiting screen time and banning toys such as Barbie and guns [Links to anxiety in late modernity] - adults are amused by their own childhood restrictions but see these fears as very real for their own children - restrictions put on children reflect adults viewpoints on what is appropriate for children rather than children's own ideas - life experience such as illness or bereavement leaves parent unable to sustain sheltered innocence |
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Pugh and family circumstances being linked to the ability to provide sheltered innocence |
- some activities are seen as a risk to children eg. the risk of obesity when staying inside and using a gameboy too often BUT - in other situations to let children do this is seen as an act of love eg. when living in a dangerous neighbourhood staying inside on a gameboy is safer than going out to play |
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Innocence and ignorance |
- children can be empowered by knowledge a well as protected from it (knowing dangers to avoid) - children can be viewed as innocent if they don't know what adults DON'T want them to know BUT - children can be seen as ignorant if they don't know what adults DO want them to know |
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Images of innocence |
- are used to market products (innocence is a commodity) - the market has important impacts on how child innocence is conceptualised eg. paintings of children using white to signify purity - also used for charities for emotive purposes; to show the differences between the ideal image of childhood and the lived experience of children (for example Barnardo's campaign) |
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Barnardo's campaign |
- displayed children in adult situations such a prostitution and drug taking - caused controversy as it crossed the boundaries between childhood innocence and adult knowledge - suggests that adolescents aren't seen as innocent as they weren't used in any images (would they have got the same reaction) - further suggests the concept of innocence doesn't span 0-18yrs - innocence is based on conceptions of adults in society [Links to use of space and place - children at risk or as a risk] |
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Childhood and sexuality: Freud |
- children are born with sexual desires and are all driven by sexual or bodily pleasure - this challenged the idea of 'normal sexuality' - viewpoints on child sexuality (such as is a child indulging or exploring) depends on adults perspectives which depends on their culture and society - it is impossible to make universal statements as each culture and society sees sexuality differently |
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Childhood and sexuality: Foucault |
- argued Freud's notion of innate sexuality - instead believed that ideas about sexuality as being cultural constructs, influenced by history - he saw schools as sites where young people interact (conducting their sexuality) and adults watched and intervened upon the - he said that the layout of schools in 18th and 19th Century's demonstrated a preoccupation with sex (maybe due to girls and boys being separated) - he suggested that ideas about sexuality are created through discourses (particular ways of thinking, speaking and categorising sex) |
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Policing children's innocence |
- childhood and sexual innocence are associated by society therefore children are seen to need protection from this knowledge - there is a fine line between knowledge and control; adults define children as sexually innocent and so regulate their knowledge [Links back to childhood in crisis, toxic childhood, parents lacking skills to manage these experiences - Sue Palmer] |
